D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds Pentagon's ban on Anthropic

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld, by a 2-to-1 vote, the Pentagon's determination that Anthropic's products pose a national security supply chain risk, a determination that allows the Department of Defense to prohibit its personnel and private-sector employees involved in defense contracts from using Anthropic's AI. Judges Gregory Katsas and Naomi Rao said in the majority opinion that the Department of Defense had sufficient grounds to determine that Claude's continued integration into its information systems constitutes a national security risk covered by the law, and noted that Anthropic acknowledged writing restrictions into Claude that have repeatedly blocked tasks requested by government users. Dissenting Judge Karen Henderson argued that the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 was intended to guard against sabotage by malicious foreign actors, not to target an American company that proactively built safety and ethical guardrails into its products. The ruling does not affect a separate lawsuit in the Northern District of California, where a court last month ruled that the Trump administration's attempt to bar Anthropic from all federal contracts was invalid.